The stories behind the buildings, statues and other points of interest that make Manhattan fascinating.

Saturday, October 24, 2015

The Colorful History of No. 431 Broome Street

The raising of the attic floor is evidenced by the brick color.

As the city inched northward in the decades following the
Revolution, new streets quickly filled with the homes of merchant class
families.Among them was Broome Street,
named in honor of John Broome who brought $2 million of tea from China in the
first years after the war, initiating the China trade that would make fortunes
for many New York merchants.

Around 1825 a handsome red brick home was erected at No. 431
Broome Street.Just a block east of Broadway
where Federal mansions were being built, the house reflected the comfortable
financial circumstances of its builder.Three
stories tall with a dormered attic, the home was entered above a short
stoop.A handsome arched entrance included
foliate-carved blocks.

It was possibly well-to-do merchant George Dutch who
constructed No. 431.His family lived
here certainly from the mid-1830s through 1843.But that year the Dutch family was apparently converting their home to a
boarding house.The widow of Morris
Martin, Margaret, was listed here that year, along with her son Richard who
made his living as a clerk.Also in the
house was accountant William A. Budd who worked at No. 82 William Street.

Budd would remain in the house for at least six years and
was apparently doing well in business.His profession had changed from “clerk” to “importer” in city
directories in 1849.Another importer,
Edward Boker, was living in the Broome Street house that year; suggesting that
it was still a high-end establishment.That was further supported by the presence of the widowed Mrs. Robert Ainslie.Her husband had been president of the North
American Fire Insurance Co.When her
36-year old son, John, died in June 1852, his funeral was held here.

But commerce was quickly encroaching onto Broome
Street.While boarders like clerk
William Kruse continued to live on the upper floors in 1860, the parlor level
had been converted to business.August
H. Arensfeld ran his “liquors” business here, most likely on the first floor
and the basement had been converted to Henry Bode’s saloon.

Despite the presence of the saloon, Broome Street
remained respectable.The piano and
organ district had moved onto the block within the past few years.Directly across the street at No. 421 was
Lighte & Bradbury’s piano-forte business by 1860 and before 1866 C. M.
Tremaine & Brothers piano and organ operation moved into No. 435.

In 1862 Edward A. Lauter joined the musical trend on the
block when he opened his musical instrument store in No. 431—most likely taking
over the space formerly home to Arensfeld’s liquor store.Lauter was listed as a “violin and guitar
manufacturer.”In 1866 his relative,
Franz (or “Frank”) joined Edward and their listing was changed to Lauter &
Company.

The former house was perhaps too small for the Lauters' vast
instrument business; for they were gone the following year.In 1867 Henry F. Dipple, manufacturer of “Piano-Forte
key and action” was doing business here.

By now it appears that the last of the residential tenants
had left.That same year directories
listed M. R. Brewer and Abraham Goldsmith as doing business at No. 431.Another of the businesses here suffered a
devastating theft in February 1873.An
advertisement was placed in The Sun on February 20 by the attorneys of the
anonymous firm:

$300 Reward—Stolen from
431 Broome st., a tin box containing the following: $10,000 North Carolina
bonds, mortgages, deeds and other valuables.The payment of the above bonds has been stopped.The above reward will be paid and no questions
asked upon delivery of the said box and contents at our office.”

The owners’ eagerness to retrieve the box was evident in the
amount of the reward—equal to approximately $6,000 today.

While the fur and apparel district pushed the music industry
off the block, the saloon continued in the basement.In 1876 it was run by Simon Schwartz; while
upstairs C. E. Bresler & Co., Nicholas Marinkovitz, and Rudolph Barbancile
operated their fur businesses.Also in
the building that year was apparel firm Stryker & Co.

Felix Marx owned No. 431 in 1884 and while the venerable
brick homes around his were demolished or renovated as modern cast iron structures;
he chose to leave the building essentially as-is, with the necessary
alterations for business.It would seem that his attention was more focused
that year on the struggling saloon in the basement.

After a quarter of a century the saloon business here appears
to have been suffering.In 1884 Marx
signed a three-year lease on the basement with Charles H. Balz.Balz agreed to a rent of $100 per month.

But a year into the lease Balz sublet the space to Ernst
Schnopp.Within days Schnopp signed over
the “saloon and lease” to Bernheimer & Schmid.And within four months, in September 1885, a
no-doubt frustrated Felix Marx leased the saloon again to Schnopp, at a reduced
rent of $1,000 per year.

The business does not seem to have been doing much better in
1893.On June 16 M. Katzenberg placed an
advertisement in The Evening World offering “A Bargain—downtown restaurant for
sale cheap.”

By the turn of the century the once-refined home had
received a shop window and the attic had been raised to a full floor.A decorative brick parapet was added later.

In the meantime, the apparel firms here hired low-paid
immigrant sewing girls.Disaster was
narrowly averted when fire broke out on December 1, 1903 in the skirt factory
of Gordon & Mascovitch.

The blaze started in the afternoon, when Herrmann’s
Restaurant in the basement was crowded with lunchtime patrons.Upstairs dozens of workers were busy at their
sewing machines.Detective Sergeants
Vallely and Collins were riding a Broadway streetcar when they heard screams a
full block away.They jumped from the
car and ran towards No. 431.

The New York Times
reported “Five Italian women and girls fled to the front fire-escapes and stood
screaming when a blaze was discovered on the second floor of the five-story
factory, 431 Broome Street.”

The fire escape led from the top floor to the second, where
the girls were.When the policemen
arrived, another worker was struggling to lower the fire escape ladder to the
sidewalk.One of the girls had no intention of waiting to
be rescued.According to The Times she “climbed the cornice to
No. 433, where she was taken through a second-floor window by William Kusnock,
employed there.”

The Sun’s version
of the episode differed slightly from that of The Times.It reported “The detectives
got a small ladder from a building near by and propping it against the front of
the building carried the four girls to the street, and then helped the man
down.”

The Times gave a more gripping account.“They fought their way up through the smoke
to the first floor, where they helped a man who was trying to lower the
fire-escape ladder…They then carried the rest of the women down.”

While the drama was taking place on the second floor, the
patrons of Herrmann’s Restaurant “rushed to the street.”The fire was extinguished before it spread
beyond the second floor.The Times
called the detectives’ heroism “smart work.”

By the time of the fire No. 431 was surrounded by cast iron
loft buildings and the once-quiet residential street bustled with trucks,
factory workers, and businessmen.Throughout
the 20th century the former house would see a succession of
businesses—the commercial printer Winnick Press around the time of World War I;
R. Seller Co., dealer in store and office fixtures during the Depression years;
and a plumbing shop in the early 1970s.

In 1971 the floors above the plumbing business were
converted to “joint residential and professional purposes for artists.”It was the dawn of the rediscovery of Soho by
artists and throughout the cast iron district neglected loft buildings were
being converted to artist’s studios and galleries at street level.

The renaissance of Soho was evidenced when the ground floor
became a trendy restaurant, Gourmet Garage, in 1997.But epic change came to No. 431 when it was
converted to The Broome; a 14-room boutique hotel.A $6 million renovation by architects James
Anzalone and Thomas Tsue included the construction of an adjoining building on
the rear lot, creating an open air courtyard.

Surrounded by 19th century factory buildings, the
four-story brick house still wears its industrial look of the early 20th
century.But the refined Federal-style
entranceway through which George Dutch’s family came and went still survives.